CHH CoNeX paves the way for future working

CHH CoNeX has featured on the UK Government’s Business Support Blog as an effective example of a company following government advice and using clear communication with staff to maintain a healthy workforce throughout the Coronavirus pandemic.

Despite seeing a 50% reduction in normal sales during the lockdown period, CHH has stood by employees through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and continued to operate critical services throughout the period on a skeleton workforce. Throughout the past few weeks the business has both delivered critical personal protective equipment to field service engineers and implemented vital infrastructure maintenance and upgrades all over the UK.

As the company looks to resume as close-to normal operations as possible, it has set out several social distancing measures that will help it to embrace a new business model and resume operations.  The company has already acted to minimise movement within working areas, preparing its Birmingham-based facility for social distancing. Offsite and visitor meetings have been switched to video conferencing, while any work functions that can be performed offsite will now be carried out in the safety of people’s homes for the foreseeable future.

Managing director Tim Hughes sees the updated operational processes as part of a new normal and key to enabling the business to once again scale-up operations, he said: “Our new approach is working really well and some things, such as working from home, have been so effective we have adopted them moving forward. We are keeping our plans under review and continuing to follow Government advice to keep our team safe and productive.

“The past few weeks have been hugely challenging, but it has shown that we can adapt and flex to assume new ways of working with minimal disruption. Social distancing, remote working and good hygiene measures are here to stay but they do not have to be a negative thing for businesses.”